Crafty Craft for Mother’s Day

This beautiful little paper flower craft is super easy to make, is totally inexpensive, and the kids will love picking out the colours that Mom loves most. Plus, these flowers never wilt so she can enjoy them year round!

As always with a Crafty Craft, feel free to change it up to suit your creativity and your budget…no glue gun? Use white glue! It just takes a little longer, but the results are the same.

Paper Blossoms for Mom

These simple and pretty little blossoms are made with just a few things, and you can make them any size and colour you want! All of the kids can add flowers to one branch or they can each make their own for a lovely bouquet.

Dad just needs to buy the vase!

Time (per flower):

10 mins. Bank on at least an hour to get the entire thing made if you’re really getting into it!

Materials & Tools:

*branches (dry ones!) or sticks of some description

*a variety of colourful paper, cut into squares (you can also use felt or fabric for this!)

*scissors

*glue gun

*glue sticks for the glue gun

*a vase or container to hold the finished artwork

*twine (optional…it’s for holding the stems together…elastics work too!)

Instructions:

Step One:

Pick out the branches or sticks you’d like to use…get the kids in the yard breaking off old dry twigs from the trees (it has to be done anyway!), and choose colours that you know Mom likes. It might be fun to have each child choose their own branch or colour to make it more personal!

Step Two:

Draw a spiral on each piece of paper, making sure that the lines are about 2cm away from each other, and that the spiral ends with a flat line like a snail (see 2nd pic below).

Have the kids cut out the spiral around the outside first, and then begin to cut into the spiral when that flat edge is.

Crafty Tip: Cutting is hard for little hands, especially when curves are involved! Make sure they’re holding the scissors properly (thumb in small hole, fingers in big hole), and that they’re cutting with the inside corner of the scissor blades rather than the tip. Also, have them keep their cutting hand still, but using their other hand to move the paper for more success!

Step Three:

Plug in the hot glue gun (remember to lay it on something to protect the table!). Start rolling up the spiral from the flat end inwards. Kids will have trouble getting the rolls started, so give them a hand, or start the roll around a toothpick or pencil.

Roll it up all the way, keeping the roll pretty tight, and the bottom edges as lined up as you can. You’ll notice that the top edge will flare out a bit, and that’s ok because those are the petals!

One problem you might encounter is a difficulty getting the bottom edges to stay in line, so apply a little bead of glue to the roll as you go which will help hold it together. Also, keeping your thumb or finger on the top to keep the roll together might help.

Roll it up until you’re left with the circular center part of the spiral and a tightly rolled flower. Put a big blob of glue on the tight end of the flower, close the circle over top and press to attach. You can fold the circle up the sides of the flower and stick it down with more glue if you want to.

Step Four:

Hot glue your collection of flowers to the branches. Keep in mind that gluing things onto frail little twigs will result in broken branches, so find strong parts of the branch to stick them to.

Crafty Tip: Sticking the side of the flower to the side of the branch will give it more sticky surface area to attach to and will definitely stay put longer than if you try to glue things to the tip of the branches!

Way to go!! A gorgeous gift for Mom! Just pop it in that vase you bought and tell her how amazing she is!

Renée Sala is the Director and owner of Crafty School of Art, located in Victoria, BC. She’s been a ‘Crafty Kid’ her entire life, and learned most of what she knows from her Mom (a potter for over 30 years) and her Dad (a carpenter). Add a fantastic art school education, 8 years of traveling, plus 10 years of teaching at home and abroad and you’ve got the Craftiest teacher in town!

Her enthusiasm for teaching and making art in a variety of mediums led her to open Crafty in 2010. Kids in the Victoria area have been exploring clay, wool, sewing, paper maché and SO much more ever since. She focuses on skill development and goal setting with a big dose of fun fun fun!

Please have a look at the Crafty School of Art website for more information on upcoming Crafty Classes, Camps, In-School Programs, Festivals, and Crafty Kits (DIY Kits for kids!).